For many students, films and television provide not only a chief source of entertainment, but their only glimpse of history outside of a formal classroom. This book aims to stimulate media awareness and critical viewing skills in students through lessons in critical analysis and historical interpretation of selected films. The films chosen for examination are presentations of history rather than documentations of history. These historical presentation films may present historical content in four ways: (1) as factual record; (2) to convey atmosphere; (3) to suggest analogy; or (4) as a lesson in historiography. The book is organized into a beginning teacher's guide and information section followed by 15 units on specific historic periods. The teacher's section includes an introduction, bibliography, video sources, master index of feature films, and reproducible student material. Most units also have reproducible student pages consisting of a guide of what to watch for in a film, and a worksheet that includes a vocabulary list and questions based on the film. The units offer background, plot synopsis and ideas for class discussion of the suggested film. These units and films include: (1) "The Colonial Experience: 'Three Sovereigns for Sarah'" (1986); (2) "The American Revolution: '1776'" (1972); (3) "The Expansion of the New Nation: 'The Buccaneer' (1958)"; (4) "The Civil War: 'Glory'" (1989); (5) "The West: 'Dances with Wolves'" (1990); (6) "World War I: '1918'" (1985); (7) "The Twenties: 'Matewan'" (1987); (8) "The Great Depression: 'The Grapes of Wrath'" (1940); (9) "World War II: 'Air Force'" (1943); (10) "The Cold War: 'Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'" (1964); (11) "Civil Rights Movement: 'The Long Walk Home'" (1991); (12) "Life in the Fifties and Sixties: 'American Graffiti'" (1972); (13) covers the Vietnam War with a teacher's guide to films and documentary sources; and (14) "The End of the Twentieth Century: 'Nightbreaker'" (1988). Unit 15, "Teaching Media Literacy Through Film: The OK Corral Gunfight--A Case Study," is a comparative study of the same event as shown by three films: "My Darling Clementine" (1946), "Gunfight at the OK Corral" (1957), and "Doc" (1971). (MM)